The Deal
by ThatBigBlueBox
Summary: The Guardian laughed in his gravelly, terrifying tone, and Amelia Allen felt her heart beat rapidly in her constricted throat. She felt paralyzed. How could she have forgotten? How could she have been so stupid? She couldn't breathe as she felt the world around her disappear, as the Guardian gave his command, "I expect the Time Lord dead."
1. Chapter 1

**[A.N. - Hello everyone! Experimenting with possibly a longer term story here, which is a first here, so please bear with me! I've always wondered why the Black Guardian never returned - like, ever - to finish the job he started with Turlough back in the Classic series. Of course, they can't exactly use the actor, but the Black Guardian has always fascinated me as a villain and I absolutely love to explore the dynamics between him and his many pawns. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the YouTuber President Romana has an excellent song called "The Deal" that has to do with Turlough's tortured start as a companion. Anyways, I do hope you enjoy, and if you'd like more of this, please leave a review to let me know! :) ****]**

**[A.N. - Edited to reflect a mistake pointed out to me that the Guardians are not Eternals! Sorry for the mistake!]**

* * *

"_Good to meet you, Sally Sparrow!"_

Amelia Allen smiled slightly as the credits rolled, taking off her headphones. Stories like those, where the Doctor changed the lives of those around him… those were the ones that got to her the most. And she knew it was cliche, she knew it had all been said before (and the fact that she was acknowledging that it had been said before was in itself cliche), but she felt that she really identified with the people the Time Lord interacted with. She craved knowing the last of the Time Lords, the lonely man that felt, at times, incapable of being loved.

She had never felt any romantic interest in the character, but Amelia romanticized meeting him. Fictional characters were her weakness.

Biting her cracked lip (damn the curse of winter), she made a weak attempt to smooth out her cropped, dark brown hair as she hurried to get ready for the rest of her day. The sun (singular) was shining, and she had places to be. Certainly not wrapped up in some sci-fi character.

Sniffing, she grabbed her thermos (tea, always tea, always loose leaf Earl Grey, judgements of others be damned) and her keys, and she hustled out the door. Her morning classes awaited her. Today, it was Statistics at nine, and Composition at eleven thirty. She prayed that she could get through the first. Math hated her.

When she started the car, however, the clock read the dreaded number: eight-fifty three. She was a good twenty minutes away from campus. Commuting would be the end of her.

Cursing, Amelia pressed down on the gas to peel out of the apartment complex, her tires squealing as they rushed onto the highway.

She merged too fast to see any of it happen.

The semi truck blared its horn, but it was too late. The front of the truck smashed through the rear of her car, and then-

Darkness.

Light.

Amelia sat up with a loud, unbecoming gasp, squinting frantically in the sudden brightness. A presence behind her made her scream, whipping around to see an older man dressed in all black, with a sort of bird sitting atop his head.

"Who- where-"

"Calm down, my child," the man said, and Amelia was quieted by his deep, compelling voice. She felt a certain amount of decision in his voice, though she couldn't at all place why. "Do you know what has taken place?"

"I…" her voice trembled, cracking as she tried to recall. "...I was driving to… school- I… was late, I- oh, my- did I- am I- dead?"

"That… is to be decided, my child," the man stated calmly, staring at Amelia with a sort of clinical inspection.

"To be… what? Are you… are you God?"

"Not God. Like Him, I am immortal."

"What the _hell_ does that mean-?"

"Not Hell. Just me."

Amelia was silenced in horror by the man's words.

"Are you… am I in Hell?"

The man chuckled, a low, gravelly sound that sent chills down her spine.

"No, no, my dear, not Hell. We are outside of Time. Outside of Space."

"I… don't understand."

"No, you wouldn't, my child," the man affirmed, shaking his head. "Alas, it is not necessary for you to comprehend. Not that. What you must understand, however, is that I am giving you a chance at life."

"...life?"

"Yes. Life. For I have many names, Amelia Allen, but many call me the Black Guardian. The Guardian of Destruction and Chaos. But I may also bring life."

"You… I…"

"I offer you life in exchange for one thing: you must kill one who has brought great harm to me. To the Balance of Time and Space and Eternity."

"I… no, I… won't. I can't… kill."

"You may have life, if you only carry out this one act. If you refuse, you shall remain dead. You shall remain here, for Eternity, alone."

"No, I- I won't!"

The Black Guardian's lips curled downward slowly, as though in disappointment.

"Very well. Then you shall remain here. If you discover you have found a change of heart, simply call out, and I will hear."

Without another word, the Guardian disappeared in a flash, leaving Amelia alone in the blank space. There was nothing to be seen, anywhere, simply a flat, white, noiseless plane. It hurt to look at.

Amelia tried to close her eyes, but she found that she could not. Flinching, she fell back to her knees. She didn't feel anything. She felt like tears should be coming to her eyes, but none fell. None were even created. She wanted to feel her lungs constricting in a panic attack, but to her horror and dismay, she found that she didn't even need to breathe.

Rocking back and forth, Amelia sat in that position for an amount of time that she could not determine, for there was no indicator of time, no daylight, no sun, and she never felt the urge to sleep once.

After what felt like Eternity, she screamed out in agony for the pain she could not feel.

"_I'll do it! I'll do it! Please, just let me feel something!"_

The moment she said this, the Black Guardian reappeared. Amelia's eyes were fixed on his form, devouring the image like it was the last she would ever see. It was the first in forever.

"I am glad that I have your consent," the Guardian spoke, his lips curled upwards. "Come here, my child."

Amelia stood on trembling legs, and she slowly made her way over to him.

"This pact shall be sealed with a touch," he spoke, closing his eyes and laying two fingers on either side of Amelia's forehead. She flinched as she felt the sensation of someone invading her mind, but the presence was soon gone. She took a step back after it had disappeared, to see that the Guardian held a crystal in his hand.

"This shall keep you true to your agreement," the Eternal stated, and Amelia accepted the crystal. "I will know if you are weak in your disposition or disloyal to your cause. Once you kill him, you will be free. With a small gift from me first. It will help him in trusting you. And… from your mind, I can tell you'll be more than capable of the task."

Amelia said nothing, her blue eyes lowered to the crystal that she now possessed.

"You will be entering his Universe, now," the Guardian ordered as Amelia felt her legs disappearing beneath her. "I expect the Time Lord dead."

Though she was moving, Amelia froze at the Black Guardian's final words. Time Lord. Suddenly, she recalled a story from the classic series. Doctor Who. _Enlightenment._ Turlough. How could she have forgotten? She had been used in the exact same way that he had been. Panic welled inside her as she disappeared from the space, reappearing in a new one. It smelled like smoke and alcohol. Her lungs constricted. She was breathing again. Well… she was trying to.

She felt heat burning at her wrists and her ankles and her neck and it climbed everywhere on her body. Glancing down, she saw in horror that golden energy was spilling from every part of her body.

_Impossible impossible impossible-_

Agony overtook her. She felt dizzy. The world spun around her. She couldn't see. The last thing she remembered was the cool touch of rough hands on her neck, where her pulse should have been, before she passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello everyone! It's been ages, but here's the second installment of The Deal. Hope you all enjoy, and thank you for reading! :)**

_A musical voice lilted in her dreams. It spoke words to her that she knew she shouldn't have been able to understand. But she did. She understood them all. More importantly, she knew every intricacy of Space, of Time, she knew every fixed point and every flux point, she felt the turn of the Earth, she felt the stardust emitting from the spin of the Vortex, all of Time and Space, and she knew it, and it was killing her-_

Amelia woke with a gasp, feeling an unnatural sense of _wrongness_. She felt different. She felt… changed.

"Calm down, calm down!" the beautiful voice spoke to her again, seizing her by the shoulders to keep her on the surface she had awoken on. He wasn't speaking English. Amelia only knew English. How could he be-

"Look, I know you're scared and confused, but I can explain, I… have to explain."

Amelia turned, and she stiffened.

Before her stood a man she only had ever seen on the television. It was a man in a pinstriped suit and spiky hair and a weight to his eyes that the actors did a decent enough job of portraying, but… this was real. This… agony was honest.

This was the Doctor. This was the man she was supposed to kill. The man she admired.

Amelia felt the crystal's warmth in her pocket, almost burning, reminding her of her mission.

"Who…" Amelia stopped suddenly. What meant to come out as a distinctly English question curved around her tongue in a musical note that she thought she shouldn't be able to understand. But she did. She understood it like she had spoken it her whole life.

"I'm… the Doctor," the man hesitated in the same tongue, and Amelia noted a slight pretext of fear- and regret- in his eyes. Amelia's heart ached for him. The crystal burned hotter. "You're on my TARDIS. You must have slipped through a crack in Time and Space, and you regenerated. You've been out a week. Was this your first one?"

"...yes," Amelia responded in the same language, half listening in awe at her own words.

"I'm sorry you had to do it alone," he apologized, sincerely, and Amelia felt nauseous. How was she ever supposed to kill this man? "What's your name?"

She began to say her real one, but she stopped short. 'Amelia' wasn't precisely a Time Lord name, and she felt keenly the command the Black Guardian had placed in her subconscious mind to remain undercover. The Doctor smiled tightly.

"I understand," he replied. "Have you not chosen a title yet? The War forced… too many to accept regenerative cycles that weren't ready. Do you have a nickname, from the Academy, or anything?"

Amelia hesitated again. She had gotten rather involved in the lore culture of Doctor Who, but Rassilon help her- she could only think of the Heartshaven stem. She thought of several syllables quickly, stringing them together to incorporate the stem, and she hoped dearly she didn't sound foolish.

"Theodvoratrelundar," she winced at the name. Had she used too much of Romana's name?

However, the Doctor seemed to accept it, nodding quickly, but she didn't miss the slight wince.

"House of Heartshaven, I'm assuming?" he asked her, his voice thick. Amelia nodded, apparently not quite hiding the fear in her eyes. "No, no, it's okay, I'm not prejudiced. I had a friend from that House once. Ended up being the Lady President."

"Romanadvoratrelundar?" Amelia asked gently after her relief that he had misinterpreted her emotion, knowing that she was breaching an uncomfortable topic. The Time Lord's eyes flickered up, a nostalgic expression on his face.

"I haven't heard that name in years," he murmured. "Yes. Romana. We hunted down pieces to the Key to Time once, to keep it out of the hands of the Black Guardian. Nasty bloke, he is. Most of his kind are, but he's one of the particularly bad ones. Only wants chaos to reign. Oh, but Romana and I stopped him from getting them, of course- are you okay?"

Amelia noticed suddenly that she had been crying. She swiped away tears, her shoulders bobbing up and down uncontrollably. He placed a hand awkwardly on her shoulder, guilt brimming in his eyes that rose higher than the flood of her tears.

"No, of course you're not," he murmured, letting out a shaky breath of air. "I'm sorry. That was… not a good choice of words. You know… what happened, then? With the end of the War?"

Amelia only nodded, the fear of mistakes she might have made in her story keeping her silent. The Doctor's face fell, guilt wracking at his expression.

"I am so sorry," he muttered, shaking his head. "The High Council was planning on destroying the entire Universe. The Daleks were closing in. I…"

"You didn't have a choice," Amelia finished, giving him a small, watery smile. "I know. I understand."

"How…" The Time Lord looked up at her, properly this Time, confusion his paramount emotion. "How can you…"

"I just… I just do." Her shoulders shook again, and the Doctor hesitantly placed a hand on her shoulder. When she didn't back away, he moved it to her forehead.

"May… may I?" he asked, and Amelia's heart- no, her hearts- sped up in anxiety. What if he saw the Black Guardian's orders? What if…

An idea occurred to her then. What _if_ he saw the Black Guardian's orders? Maybe… maybe he would be able to free her after all. Maybe she wouldn't have to carry out her task. Quickly, she nodded, allowing his thumb to brush across her temple. She stiffened at the feeling of someone in her mind, but the Doctor's presence was… warmer, in a way- less overwhelming, less crushing, than that of the Black Guardian. He must have felt her flinch, because he retreated slightly.

"_Rassilon, you are young,"_ he murmured, a stark difference from the Black Guardian's booming tones. "_I am… so sorry. For everything."_

Amelia remained silent, partly due to lack of knowledge. Now that he was here, in her mind, she had absolutely no clue how to direct him to what she wanted him to see. She thought briefly about the concept of doors introduced to Reinette in "Girl in the Fireplace," and she concentrated hard, the effort making her head pound. Finally, though, a hazy, flickering door appeared in front of them.

It was painted the most nauseating shade of black, looking almost charred in some places. Chips in the paint gave it an uncomfortable similarity to that of a horror movie. Amelia felt like she wanted to throw up just staring at it, but she could not look away. This was her own mind.

She felt the Doctor regard the door with a curious wariness, stepping forward towards the door slowly. He turned his presence to her.

"_You want me to see this?"_ he asked, and she managed to scrape out an affirmative. The door trembled slightly as he proceeded towards it, as though the foundation was being tested by an earthquake, but the floor beneath their feet remained still. The Doctor placed his hand on the flickering, shuddering, ash-colored doorknob, and-

Amelia felt a roaring rage swell through her, and she let out a wail of agony; it felt as though he had plunged a cattle prod into her brain. The whole world rumbled now, dizzying, like an unsteady camera. The walls began to give way, and Amelia shrieked as she caught sight of the terrifying darkness behind the fabric of her mental space. The booming laughter of the Black Guardian rang out like a round of bullets in her ears, and she collapsed onto piles of mental rubble, curling into the fetal position-

And she was plunged into light.


End file.
